Research Areas | Center for Translational Research

Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network (CPCCRN)

Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network

Since 2005, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has funded the Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network (CPCCRN) to investigate the safety and efficacy of treatments, management strategies and outcomes of critically ill children in intensive care units. Children’s National Hospital has been a member of this network since its inception. The network currently consists of seven clinical sites and a data-coordinating center. Led at Children’s National by David Wessel, M.D. (co-principal investigator), Murray Pollack, M.D. (co-principal investigator), and Randall Burd, M.D. (co-investigator), CPCCRN has published over 50 peer-reviewed manuscripts from numerous observational trials on diverse subjects, including:

Cortisol response in critical illness
Near-fatal asthma
Critical pertussis
Assessment of morbidity
Predicting morbidity and mortality
A decision support tool for mechanical ventilation
Bleeding and thrombotic complications of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO)
Opioid tolerance

The program is currently engaged in a broad range of studies, including:

Evaluation of correlations between hemodynamics during CPR with outcomes
Implementation of a resuscitation bundle to improve cardiac arrest outcomes
GMCSF (granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor) to improve immune function following critical illness
Uses of inhaled nitric oxide
Microbiome changes preceding ventilator-associated pneumonia
Red blood cell changes during sepsis
Life after pediatric sepsis
Hypothermia impact on pharmacology
Phenotypes of sepsis
Causes and needed new therapies for PICU morbidity and mortality
Mediators of pediatric ARDS (adult respiratory distress syndrome)

In collaboration with Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network (PECARN) and the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), CPCCRN is conducting a randomized trial of therapeutic hypothermia after pediatric cardiac arrest (THAPCA).

Meet the Team

Pediatric Critical Care Outcomes Research Initiative

The overarching goal of the Pediatric Critical Care Outcomes Research Initiative (PC-CORI) is to develop a dynamic assessment of risk suitable for use in individual hospitalized patients. The effort is focused on using big data from the Health Facts® database with over 50 million patient encounters. The initiative combines the clinical expertise of critical care medicine, the biostatical expertise of the Children’s National Division of Biostatistics and Study Methodology, the data sciences expertise of the George Washington University Biomedical Informatics Center and computer and data management expertise of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute at Children's National (CTSI–CN) and the George Washington University. Other goals of the initiative include:

Investigation of medication use and medication complications
Identification of previously undefined clinical states important for outcome prediction
Long-term goal of making big data available to the Children’s National and GW community

The initiative is funded from support of Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals.

Meet the Team

Murray M. Pollack, M.D.

Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network (CPCCRN)